Subtle twists in novel of cold war ambiguities
Exuberant times with Grimes at the Social
It's hard to empathise with the dysfunctional couples in a new play set in suburban Chicago because they're too one-dimensional
JEFF SAWTELL and BEN DAVIS trawl through the highlights, the low points the truly nauseating disasters of cinema's offerings in 2004.
JEFF SAWTELL wonders why Martin Scorsese has failed to get his teeth into the life of playboy Howard Hughes.
ALTHOUGH not as flamboyant as Hero, Zhang Yimou's new film House of the Flying Daggers is equally epic - poetry in motion, combining an artistic action film with a sumptuous love story, writes JEFF SAWTELL.
HOLLYWOOD holiday hokum - National Treasure is another from Jerry Bruckheimer, the action man producer of flag-waving films from Farewell My Lovely to Pirates of the Caribbean, writes JEFF SAWTELL.
ELLA Enchanted is the best by far of the most recent takes on the Cinderella story. Which isn't saying much, since it's not an experience you can recommend without reservations.
Sleep-through more likely.
FILM: Based upon Asada Jiro's best-selling novel When the Last Sword is Drawn, Yojiro Takita's cinematic adaptation is one of those long-drawn-out dramas about the last days of the samurai in 19th-century Japan.
PICK: JEFF SAWTELL marvels at Jim Carrey's gurning as the grotesque Count Olaf in this slushy Christmas flick.
FILM: KARL DALLAS finds a beautiful, poetic work based around the ugliest construction on the planet - the Israeli government's apartheid wall.